Ok, so when the weather is as rubbish as it was this evening, I found myself in a pickle of losing the light and it starting to rain.

 

If I washed my car and let the rain get on the car afterwards, will this prevent water spots good enough? I'm presuming it will wash all the tap water chemicals away?...

 

On the subject of water spots, do you still get water spots when the car has a fresh coat of wax on it? I'm thinking that sometimes it's just good to pop to the local jet wash mid-week and blast the dirt off. However, I'm reluctant to go over it with the microfibre towel afterwards, as I don't want to put scratches in it considering it hasn't been cleaned properly.

 

Re. washing techniques, is patting absolutely the way to do it? In all honesty I've tried it and it takes seemingly forever to dry the car. Quite frustrating. Plus I feel that some parts of the car you would definitely need to wipe over lightly. Advice and opinions please...!

 

Thanks all!  

`Water Spots` are the bane of my life. I live in a very hard water area.

What I've learnt to do is never, and I do mean NEVER wash your car in the sunshine. Also, once rinsed I give it a quick light spray of a suitable QD while its still wet...then dry as swiftly as possible.

With regard to `patting` or wiping`, I've tried both but find that as speed is of the essence, I wipe.

Finally, I doubt that rainwater, in the way you describe, would prevent water spots...sorry.

Rain water does help water spots. When I had a black car I used to make the most of washing it in the ****ing rain!

As **** as everyone says it is, but I used to use Demon Shine as a water softener when drying, used to help loads with water spots mate!

Yes it helps, but Demon Shine is solvent heavy and will destroy your LSP

A good QD...Not Demon Shine..... applied as a drying aid will pretty much, irradicate water spotting...as Mike rightly posts

You will probably still get water spots letting the car dry naturally or when it has rained as dust in the air will attactch to the water.

As for pat drying, it is safer than dragging a towel over your paint. But as you say it takes much longer.

Yes it helps, but Demon Shine is solvent heavy and will destroy your LSP

A good QD...Not Demon Shine..... applied as a drying aid will pretty much, irradicate water spotting...as Mike rightly posts

 

Can the Sonax QD ( Liquid sealent stuff ) be used as a drying aid ?

Yes Andy..It dilutes well with water

Done it a few times

Water spots are the bane of my life when it comes to detailing.

 

On a black car, in the summer I sometimes have to result to washing with ONR in order to wash one panel at a time and dry it off straight away otherwise its a nightmare.

 

From experience a good quality QD is your friend, there are loads to choose from. At the moment for drying, my weapons of choice are Adam's Detail Spray, Adam's drying towel and me Metro Sidekick Blaster.

 

As NM has said rain causes water spots as dust and other particles gather on their way down and then dry all over your nice shiny car. Mine looks terrible at the moment for this reason.

Rain water spots are generally better than tap water spots I find. Depends on the dust in the air too.

The wife's black mx5 always had water spots or muck on it from the weather but they clean off easily unlike the ones I get if the sun happens to show itself whilst I'm washing it

Yes it helps, but Demon Shine is solvent heavy and will destroy your LSP

A good QD...Not Demon Shine..... applied as a drying aid will pretty much, irradicate water spotting...as Mike rightly posts

Never done any damage to my CC oracle coating. Guess it's much harder wearing than a wax / seal.

I rinse my cars off with one of these

 

http://www.daqua.co.uk/divessels.htm

 

Can wash even black cars in full sun with no water marks at all

Never done any damage to my CC oracle coating. Guess it's much harder wearing than a wax / seal.

Yes it is Dan

Good info on here!

 

So do tap water spots cause damage to the LSP, or are they merely an eyesore?

Good info on here!

 

So do tap water spots cause damage to the LSP, or are they merely an eyesore?

Can require polishing to remove but its only limescale so doesnt damage anything or reduce the life of the lsp

I use a 50/50 solution of Meg's Last Touch and Water in a pump action spray bottle as a drying aid and it works very well. 

I just use a Sonus blue perl drying towel to dry my car without the use of a quick detailer and to be honest it doesn't seem to do any harm. I'll use the steam cleaner in work, 2bm with a shampoo of my choice then i'll use the bare hosepipe to sheet the water off the car then just dry it. Easy as that.

 

Vw have notoriously hard paint anyway, also my car is 11 years old and not exactly in show room condition, but I do understand why people with more valuable cars go the extra mile.